Conventional wire line vehicle indicator signal systems suffer many problems over time, particularly where a towing vehicle is to supply indicator signals to a trailing vehicle. A safety problem arises when such systems fail to reliably deliver indicator signals to the trailing vehicle. Even when a system is initially working correctly, factors enroute (e.g. rough roads and brush in forests and water in streams & lakes) can cause the system to fail in a manner that is difficult to correct when traveling. Various attempts have been made to avoid or solve these problems.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,677,856 issued to Pearlman and Looper (“856”) the inventors teach only physical means of coupling to an existing “vehicle indication signal drive line” by tapping into the wiring harness of a vehicle. Disadvantageously, this requires an installer to remove components of the vehicle and connect to specific wires in a wiring harness (that differs from vehicle to vehicle), making 856 unsuitable for any average end user to install and setup, as well as non-portable.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,103 issued to Davis (“103”) teaches a kit including sensor means for installation in suggests an alternate embodiment using a “Hall-effect probe” not physically connected to the power source, it fails to teach how to solve the substantial problem arising from the need to distinguish between low power signals without removing parts from the towing vehicle in order to locate and identify the individual conductors in the wiring harness of that vehicle, which is again beyond the skill of the average end user of the 103 kit.
By way of context, vehicle indication signal systems typically include turn, hazard, and brake “signal” lights to alert nearby drivers of the circumstances of the vehicle from which they are displayed. The varying use of the term “signal” in this industry is clear from the context, it can mean the visible light actually alerting drivers, or a transmitted electrical pulse that causes that emission of light. Also, running lights are typically an extra filament inside a light-bulb of either a brake light or turn signal light, but could be separate light bulbs. And, on larger vehicles such as transport trucks and their trailers, running lights include marker and clearance lighting. None of the prior art identified to date has addressed such additional lighting requirements wirelessly.
Prior art in the vehicle indicator signal lighting industry has concentrated on teaching variations on controlling devices that are physically connected to an existing wiring harness, which requires tools to access and knowledge to use. Therefore, it is desirable to have a way to reliably control remote indicator signals without connecting to any vehicle wiring harness.